Toshiba Introduces New Tiny NVMe SSD Form Factor (anandtech.com) 61
At the Flash Memory Summit today, Toshiba introduced a new form factor for NVMe SSDs that is small enough to be a removable alternative to soldered-down BGA SSDs. "The new XFMEXPRESS form factor allows for two or four PCIe lanes while taking up much less space than even the smallest M.2 22x30mm card size," reports AnandTech. "The XFMEXPRESS card size is 18x14x1.4mm, slightly larger and thicker than a microSD card. It mounts into a latching socket that increases the footprint up to 22.2x17.75x2.2mm." From the report: XFMEXPRESS is intended to bring the benefits of replaceable storage to devices that would normally be stuck with soldered BGA SSDs or eMMC and UFS modules. For consumer devices this opens the way for aftermarket capacity upgrades, and for embedded devices that need to be serviceable this can permit smaller overall dimensions. Device manufacturers also get a bit of supply chain flexibility since storage capacity can be adjusted later in the assembly process. XFMEXPRESS is not intended to be used as an externally-accessible slot like SD cards; swapping out an XFMEXPRESS SSD will require opening up the case of the device it's installed in, though unlike M.2 SSDs the XFMEXPRESS socket and retention mechanism itself is tool-less.
XFMEXPRESS will allow for similar performance to BGA SSDs. The PCIe x4 host interface will generally not be the bottleneck, especially in the near future when BGA SSDs start adopting PCIe gen4, which the XFMEXPRESS connector can support. Instead, SSDs in these small form factors are often thermally limited, and the XFMEXPRESS connector was designed to allow for easy heat dissipation with a metal lid that can serve as a heatspreader.
XFMEXPRESS will allow for similar performance to BGA SSDs. The PCIe x4 host interface will generally not be the bottleneck, especially in the near future when BGA SSDs start adopting PCIe gen4, which the XFMEXPRESS connector can support. Instead, SSDs in these small form factors are often thermally limited, and the XFMEXPRESS connector was designed to allow for easy heat dissipation with a metal lid that can serve as a heatspreader.
you need an amd epyc drive all the lanes with 1 cp (Score:2)
you need an amd epyc drive all the lanes with 1 cpu
Re: (Score:2)
Also a "long time IT professional" (as well as electronics engineer and manufacturer).
People like to beat on Apple pretty hard, because it's the cool geeky thing to do, but in spite of all that, overall I find their gear to be of better quality than PCs and Androids ( to be fair, I'm talking macbook and iPhones ). Yes, I know full well about how "one little drop of liquid on a part will kill a macbook", same is true of all devices. It serves the narrative nicely for the likes of Rossmann to highlight such
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Also also a "long time IT professional", but neither an electronics engineer nor manufacturer. What I have done is support Apple computers in the small to medium size business space for the past 20 years.
I will agree that Apple's hardware is of higher quality than the vast majority of consumer grade computers. Ever since Apple's move to Intel processors, they have continually made their computers harder and harder to service. At this point, I can hardly repair anything because the parts aren't available
Re: (Score:1)
I'm tired of wasting mod points on this psychotic drivel.
He's got a point. I just spent like 5 mod points on all the off-topic drivel that seems to accompany every story.
Something needs to change, these same idiots keep posting the same drivel on every story.
Re: (Score:1)
If you are on the level of having mod-points and think something needs to change, then why not propose it to Slashdot instead of posting it _on_ Slashdot?!?
Otherwise you just look some orange haired imbecile with a Twitter account.
Re:Will Apple adopt it? (Score:5, Informative)
Even if it was thin enough Apple wouldn't use it. They solder their SSDs down to prevent you upgrading, so they can sell you expensive upgrades. Same with RAM.
Re: (Score:2)
So why does Dell, Sony and Lenovo do it then? The problem with user-replaceable hardware is that virtually nobody does it except for a few hardcore nerds and it, including the screws and the sockets do take up space. For 90% of the population, a computer gets thrown out when it gets too old or slow, even if it's due to a software problem.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Lenovo uses sockets on Thinkpads. I think some of their low end consumer stuff uses soldered down memory, probably for the same reason as Apple and to save a few bucks in a very price sensitive market.
Sometimes they solder down the RAM if it can't be upgraded anyway. For example around 2012-2013 Intel mobile CPUs supported a maximum of 4GB of RAM (no more address lines available) so a lot of manufacturers just soldered 4GB of RAM on. Still annoying because if it fails replacement is a pain.
Re: (Score:2)
So why does Dell, Sony and Lenovo do it then?
On what devices? It's not soldered down on my Dell laptop. It is on some of the far thinner ones. But that's the kicker isn't it. Apple do it on all their devices, even those devices that are thicker than previous devices where they were replaceable ssds.
Re: (Score:2)
That's doubtful. If multiple PCIe lanes are an advantage, they'll just rev the SD card spec to add extra lanes – probably by sending a command that turns the UHS-I pins into extra PCIe pins. A physically incompatible card format is unlikely to replace SD. :-)
SD Express cards (Score:2)
https://www.howtogeek.com/4060... [howtogeek.com]
That's... literally exactly what SD Express is. I can't even find UHS-2 cards on offer with half the capacity of SanDisk's big cards. Frankly, I can't even find one for sale, period, so I'm not super excited for the prospects of these cards, either the SD Express, or the Toshiba XFMExpress form factor. I mean, phones and Raspberry Pi could both get a great speed boost by using SD Express as main storage, so I'll try to hold out hope...
Re: (Score:2)
What did you think I was talking about? Pre-SD-Express versions of SD didn't have any PCIe lanes at all. :-)
Unfortunately, they did something a little silly when designing that standard. A card can be either UHS-II or SD-Express, but not both, because they didn't add commands to toggle the mode of the second set of pins. They should ideally have added an "enable NVMe mode" command that makes the entire set of pins switch from being UHS-I or UHS-II to being PCIe pins. That would h
Re: (Score:2)
> If it is open it would be very interesting to see if this could replace SD cards in the future.
Depends on the application. For phones, cameras, etc. that want accessible, replaceable storage - i.e. the explicit target market for SD cards - almost certainly not. For internal storage (e.g. replacing internal SD sockets and soldered-on flash) though, we can only hope.
The SD card format is essentially designed to be a tiny, high capacity "floppy disc". This is designed to be more like a hard drive. Mo
How hard to break off? (Score:3)
Everyone who's ever broken off a locking tab that secures a tiny, flat ribbon cable, raise your hand. That's what this reminds me of. It seems like it would be really easy to accidentally break this when trying to get the card in or out.
Re: (Score:2)
*raises hand*
I think this might not suffer the same problem though. With those stupid locking tabs you're dealing with a tiny, high-friction tab that you pretty much have to manipulate with a screwdriver or similar lever, while trying to avoid applying force at the wrong angle, or overshooting the stopping angle when the friction suddenly halves as the tab starts moving.
This looks like the lever/cover itself will be over 1cm wide and almost as long, with two connection points on the hinge, and will be held
Re: (Score:2)
Now raise your hand if you've broken something replacing a BGA component on a motherboard.
These aren't designed to be user replaceable but rather more easily serviceable. Ironically I've probably unplugged more ribbon cables in the past 9 months than I have disconnected SATA cables.
Re: (Score:2)
Oh? What other "wiring harness" do we have for low-profile, high-speed replaceable permanent storage? I must have missed that one.
Apple doesn't care... (Score:2)
This I suspect is the target customer.
They will won't use it.
Can't wait for the damage (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
How often do you intend to swap the SSD in your PC?
Is this really necessary ? (Score:2)
Last year I wanted an SSD for the 2nd slot of my 2 year old laptop. I could NOT find a new SSD at the correct form factor. I had to scour ebay for a used one. So 'they' don't even produce the things they